Doesn't strengthening the quads, glutes, and calves aid you in running?

Possibly, depending on the kind of strengthening. You were talking about training to hold your legs still in an unnatural position. That's not going to help greatly to improve your running performance.

I used to do lots of forms in low stances, and my running sucked. It only really improved when I took up running.

I had the opposite experience. I used to run frequently, and at the urging of my instructor I took a break and started using my forms as cardio. After a few months I took a run with a friend of mine and noticed that my had endurance improved greatly. But to be fair I also spent a lot of time rock climbing, and found a place to spar two more days a week. Any of those may have had some effect on my endurance as well.

The patterns we do at our club are Pal Jung Do Patterns and we have 8 differents patterns to learn from white belt to Black Tag. The new pattern I have to learn is called Jung Shin (Pattern 3) and aparentley our club is not doing another grading now until December which is probably when I will be going for my Green Belt.

These patterns were developed by the World Taekwondo Association. They are a Chungdokwan school, and follow or did follow (not sure) Kukkiwon curriculum. These particular forms were not put together to teach you self defense. They were developed based on oriental philosophy and medicine to improve breathing control, stepping skills and techniques. Each one utilizes a new breathing exercise to strengthen internal organs. So in a nutshell the forms are a Korean version of Qi Gong.

As you are a beginner in this art my advice is that you start to truly understand these forms and their core objective. To try and utilize them for anything else could not only be detrimental to your safety, but you will fail to utilize the benefits that they were developed to achieve.

Jeremy M. Talbott

Originally Posted by Phrost

"Bullshido isn't just a place to hang out when you're browsing the net. We really are trying to accomplish something fucking extraordinary here that nobody's ever had the balls to do before."

Originally Posted by D.Murray

"Which is better, to learn the truth, or to enjoy the illusion of being right when you are not?"

Originally Posted by hangooknamja88

My definition of Ki is our energy. it's rather hard to explain it in words. It's not some mystical type of energy like white people...